This is a fun article. We have reached the limit of communication speed (the speed of light) which may put a damper on our ability to spread out into the universe. Even planets on the nearest stars would take years to send messages to and from Earth.
Makes me wonder…is there a workaround? Could we send messages via Quantum entanglement or gravity instead? You have given me some new inspiration for Risk & Progress.
Thanks for the kind words and I'm happy that I provided some inspiration for your writing! As a physicist, the only way I know how send messages with quantum entanglement is through quantum teleportation. Unfortunately, you need to also send some classical information, so the speed of light still sets a limit on what we can do. As for gravity, I have less experience there but my understanding is that we would need new physics to be able to do what you're suggesting.
So I'm a bit pessimistic on that front, but we don't know if we're on a tiny island in a vast unexplored sea of scientific knowledge or if we've mapped out a large portion. There could still be surprises!
I'm not sure if there will be a workaround, but it also may not matter. If we could have human bases on many planets (or stations), then we could conceivably have many people available to us at any moment. It might not matter that this is only a sliver of the total human population. If we're talking about larger-scale communication (for governments or coordination), then I have no idea what we can do.
This is a fun article. We have reached the limit of communication speed (the speed of light) which may put a damper on our ability to spread out into the universe. Even planets on the nearest stars would take years to send messages to and from Earth.
Makes me wonder…is there a workaround? Could we send messages via Quantum entanglement or gravity instead? You have given me some new inspiration for Risk & Progress.
Thanks for the kind words and I'm happy that I provided some inspiration for your writing! As a physicist, the only way I know how send messages with quantum entanglement is through quantum teleportation. Unfortunately, you need to also send some classical information, so the speed of light still sets a limit on what we can do. As for gravity, I have less experience there but my understanding is that we would need new physics to be able to do what you're suggesting.
So I'm a bit pessimistic on that front, but we don't know if we're on a tiny island in a vast unexplored sea of scientific knowledge or if we've mapped out a large portion. There could still be surprises!
I'm not sure if there will be a workaround, but it also may not matter. If we could have human bases on many planets (or stations), then we could conceivably have many people available to us at any moment. It might not matter that this is only a sliver of the total human population. If we're talking about larger-scale communication (for governments or coordination), then I have no idea what we can do.
Thanks again for reading!